Kurt Elling’s new album will be released in two weeks

Diaa Bekheet | Washington, DC – Grammy-winning singer-lyricist Kurt Elling is getting ready to release his much-anticipated new album 1619 Broadway. The title refers to the address of the 81-year-old Brill Building on 49th Street in the heart of midtown Manhattan, in New York City. In its heyday, the building was home to the world’s best songwriting teams who would compete to outdo each other constantly.

The new album showcases 11 Great American standards as interpreted and arranged by Elling, including “On Broadway,” “A House Is Not A Home,” “So Far Away,” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday.”  Download Jazz Beat.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“We have our top position on this record called ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ which I think a lot of people would know as a hit that the Flamingos had way back in the days,” Elling told VOA’s Jazz Beat. “So, what we’re doing is I tried to comb through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hit songs that came out of the Brill Building and choose things that I could get behind emotionally and I thought were relevant at this point and present them in a way that reflected my kind of aesthetic in my view as a jazz singer.”

1619 Broadway is Elling’s 11^th album. He started writing music and lyrics about 20 years ago. His music heroes include Mark Murphy, Joe Hendrix, Joe Williams, and Stevie Wonder.

He says Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and Aretha Franklin also influenced him to develop his own style. “I have developed my own take on things, which is what you hear on 1619 Broadway,” he explained. “You hear me as myself doing what I do to music that I believe in.”

Elling has a rich four-octave baritone voice that features both astonishing technical mastery and emotional depth. I asked him what song he would love to sing best — “I wish I could sing ‘Drown in My Own Tears’ in a way that someway it would pass – which is impossible – the way Aretha Franklin sang it,” he responded. “And there’s no way that I’ll ever do it.” If I could sing ‘Drown in My Own Tears’ in a way that was more sorrowful and more heavy that what Aretha Franklin did to it, then that would be the whole concept for me. I would come out, I would just sing that song then walk off the stage. That would be the night.”

For more on jazz music, listen to VOA’s Jazz America

Ella Fitzgerald figure at Madame Tussauds wax museum in Washington, Sept. 12, 2007 (AP)

Diaa Bekheet | Washington, DC –  Any time I take a trip to New York, I remember the great American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, who died 10 years ago. Ella, with her amazing, haunting, crisp voice, is always my tour guide in the Big Apple. Just listen to her hit “Manhattan” and she will tell you where to go for a fun time in New York. The song still gives me fever 22 years after I first heard it, when Ella says “The great big city’s a wonderous toy just made for a girl and boy. We’ll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy!”

“Manhattan” is part of the Great American Songbook which is probably one of the finest-ever recorded versions of classic American songs by music icons like George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Duke Ellington and others.

In my music show, I profiled phenomenal Ella Fitzgerald three times between 1992 and 1996 – the year she died. I used her songs so many times in the nostalgic “Down Memory Lane” segment of my Jazz Club USA show, to explain to our international audience how America’s first lady of songs used her voice like a musical instrument and manipulated the melody in many ways with her unerring pitch.  Here’s a combined sample: the songs follow Arabic narration.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Ella’s sweet, powerful three-octave voice and perfect diction made her the best candidate to record a splendid series of Songbook albums for Norman Granz, who directed the Jazz At The Philharmonic (JATP) concerts. Those concerts featured the era’s preeminent musicians, including: Louie Bellson, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, Nat “King” Cole, Sonny Criss, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Bill Harris, Coleman Hawkins, J.C. Heard, Billie Holiday, Gene Krupa, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Buddy Rich, Ben Webster, Lester Young and many more.

Lady Ella, used to say “I sing like I feel”. At Yonkers Metro station, you will see the first-ever life-size bronze statue of her .  Ella’s story is a classic rags to riches tale.   She was born in Yonkers in 1917 and grew up in near School Street and Park Hill Avenue. She also attended Benjamin Franklin Junior High School. Ella eventually became the most popular female jazz singer in the United States – a title she held for more than 50 years.  She had to quit her musical career because of vision problems and physical frailties. The statue (not the only one in America) was created by Yonkers sculptor Vinnie Bagwell as a tribute to the most celebrated jazz singer of her generation. Ella died on June 15, 1996 at the age of 79.

“Manhattan” is a very popular song. I’m sure after you listen to it, you will remember New York. The music was written by Richard Rodgers and the words by Lorenz Hart for the 1925 revue “Garrick Gaieties” that debuted in 1925 on Broadway. It was the first of three Garrick Gaiety revues. The song was considered to be the simplest and shortest tourist guide for the city’s visitors.

The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in 2007 as a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. She is also honored in the National Women’s Hall of Fame, which was established in 1969 in Seneca Falls, New York.  Many of the All-Star albums pay tribute to this iconic singer, whose light, distinctive and extraordinary voice always left me longing for more, especially when she improvised and scat sung with great freedom, making you feel that her voice is a musical instrument itself.  Here’s her 1938 major hit A-Tisket, A-Tasket:

Ella Fitzgerald also had a great sense of humor. She once commented on being a jazz icon saying, “Some kids in Italy call me ‘Mama Jazz; I thought that was so cute. As long as they don’t call me ‘Grandma Jazz’.”
For more on jazz music, listen to VOA’s Jazz America

Diaa Bekheet | Washington, DC – April is Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) around the world.  Here in Washington D.C., during the month-long festivities, just a few blocks from VOA headquarters, jazz music will fill the air, mixing with fragrance of roses, tulips and pink cherry blossoms that adorn the capital city.

A poster of the legendary jazz artist Mary Lou Williams developed by The National Museum of American History to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Jazz Appreciation Month in April, 2011

The annual JAM celebration is intended to draw greater local and international attention to jazz music, considered a living American art and part of a history rich with iconic artists.  Many jazz artists can trace their roots back to Africa or Europe, where this style of music originated.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

John Edward Hasse, Curator of the Smithsonian’s American Music at the National Museum of American History (NMAH) came up with the idea for an annual jazz festival in 2001. He spoke with VOA’s Russ Davis:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This year, throughout the month of April, the Smithsonian will show movies and hold jazz concerts. There will also be exhibits highlighting the significance of jazz music in the framework of the U.S. cultural heritage.  In addition visitors can check out the numerous collections on display, showcasing artifacts used by jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams and Ella Fitzgerald.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This year’s JAM 10^th anniversary festivities coincide with Cuban percussionist and Latin jazz master Candido Camero’s 90^th birthday.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

To mark both occasions, Latin jazz pianist Arturo O’Farrill will perform an evening concert.

The 10th Anniversary celebration also focuses on the legacies of jazz women, and their advocates, who helped transcend race, gender and social barriers in the quest to build a more just and equitable America.

Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex. It consists of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park and nine research facilities in Washington, D.C.

For more on jazz music, listen to VOA’s Jazz America